[JSP 21 (2000) 19-26] THE ORIGIN OF THE NAME ‘METATRON’ AND THE TEXT OF 2 (SLAVONIC APOCALYPSE OF) ENOCH! Andrei Orlov Abilene Christian University ACU Station, Box 27873, Abilene, TX 79699, USA The history of scholarship on 2 Slavonic Apocalypse of Enoch (hereafter 2 En.) has produced no real consensus concerning the possible prove- nience of this apocalypse.” Rather, there are numerous scholarly posit- ions.’ These conclusions are most likely the consequences of the differ- 1. This study has benefited considerably from the comments and kindnesses of the following scholars who read the MS and preliminary materials at various stages: Professors Christfried Béttrich, James Charlesworth, John Collins, April De Con- nick, Ian Fair, Everett Ferguson, Daniel Matt, André Resner, E.P. Sanders, Alan Segal, Carolyn Thompson, James Thompson, James VanderKam, Ben Zion Wa- cholder. 2. Fl. Andersen in his English translation of 2 Enoch notes that ‘there must be something very peculiar about a work when one scholar concludes that it was written by a hellenized Jew in Alexandria in the first century BCE while another argues that it was written by a Christian monk in Byzantium in the ninth century CE’. See FI. Andersen, ‘2 (Slavonic Apocalypse of) Enoch’, in OTP, I, p. 95. 3. See Andersen, ‘2 Enoch’; F. Borsch, The Son of Man in Myth and History (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1967); C. Bottrich, Das slavische Henochbuch (Giitersloh: Giitersloher Verlaghaus, 1995); C. Battrich, Weltweisheit, Menschheit- sethik, Urkult: Studien zum slavischen Henochbuch (Tubingen: Mohr, 1992); C, Bur- kitt, Jewish and Christian Apocalypses (London: Oxford University Press, 1914); R.H. Charles, ‘The Date and Place of Writings of the Slavonic Enoch’, JTS 22 (1921), p. 163; J.H. Charlesworth, The Pseudepigrapha and Modern Research (Missoula, MT: Scholar’s Press, 1976); J. Collins, ‘The Genre Apocalypse in Hel- lenistic Judaism’, in D. Hellholm (ed.), Apocalypticism in the Mediterranean World and the Near East (Tubingen: J.C.B. Mohr/Paul Siebeck, 1983); L. Cry, ‘Quelques20 Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 2\ (2000) ent backgrounds and perspectives which scholars have brought to their study of 2 Enoch. One of the important insights of research on 2 Enoch is the view that the text has deep connections with so-called Merkabah mysticism.* noms d’anges ou d’étres mysterieux en II Henoch’, RB 49 (1940), pp. 195-203: J. Daniélou, The Theology of Jewish Christianity (Chicago: Henry Regnery Com- pany, 1964); J. Fossum, ‘Colossians 1.15-18a in the Light of Jewish Mysticism and Gnosticism’, NTS 35 (1989), pp. 183-201; K. Lake, ‘The Date of the Slavonic Enoch’, HTR 16 (1923), pp. 397-98; M. McNamara, Intertestamental Literature (Wilmington, DE: Michael Glazier, 1983); N.A. Meschchersky, ‘Sledy pamy- atnikov Kumrana v staroslavyanskoj i drevnerusskoj literature (Kizucheniu slavyan- skih versij knigi Enoha), Trudy otdela drevnerusskoj literatury 19 (1963), pp. 130- 47; N.A. Meschchersky, ‘K istoriiteksta slavyanskoj knigi Enoha (Sledy pamy- atnikov Kumrana vy vizantiiskoj i staroslavyanskoj literature)’, Vizantijskij vremen- nik 24 (1964), pp. 91-108; N.A. Meschchersky, ‘K voprosu ob istochnikah slavyan- skoj knigi Enoha’, Kratkie soobshcheniya Instituta narodov Azii 86 (1965), pp. 72- 8 (in Russian); J.T. Milik, The Books of Enoch: Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976); G.W.E. Nickelsburg, ‘The Books of Enoch in Recent Research’, RSR 7 (1981), pp. 210-17; H. Odeberg, 3 Enoch or the Hebrew Book of Enoch (New York: Ktav, 1973); M. Philonenko, ‘La cosmogonie du “Livre des secrets D'Hénoch,”’ in Religions en Egypte: Hellénistique et Romaine (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1969); S. Pines, “Eschatology and the Concept of Time in the Slavonic Book of Enoch’, in R.J. Zwi Werblowsky (ed.), Types of Re- demption, (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1970); H.H. Rowley (ed.), A Companion to the Bible (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1963); A. Rubinstein, ‘Observations on the Slavonic Book of Enoch’, J/S 15 (1962), pp. 1-21; G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mys- ticism (New York: Schocken Books, 1954); G. Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987); M.E. Stone, Jewish Writings of the Second Temple Period (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984), II, pp. 406-408; A. Vaillant, Le livre des secrets d’Hénoch: Texte slave et traduction francaise (Paris: L Institut D’ Etudes Slaves, 1952; repr. Paris, 1976); H. Wicks, The Doctrine of God in the Jewish Apocryphal and Apocalyptic Literature (New York: Ktav, 1971). 4. The term ‘Merkabah’ is closely connected with the term which designates the mystical interpretation (‘Ma’ase Merkabah’—'The Account of the Chariot’ or “The Works of the Divine Chariot’) of the first chapter of Ezekiel. Earliest traces of the Merkabah tradition are situated in apocalyptic and Qumran literature. However, as Gruenwald notes, the main corpus of the Merkabah literature was composed in Israel in the period 200-700 CE. Some references to this tradition can be found also inthe literature of German Hasidim (twelfth to thirteenth centuries CE) and medieval Cabalistic writings (the Zohar). The term ‘Hekhaloth’ (“Divine Palaces’) designates the corpus of literature that first gives a full-scale presentation of Merkabah mysticism (the beginning of the tradition is connected with the circle of Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai and his pupils).ORLOV The Origin of the Name ‘Metranon’ 21 Among the leading pioneers of this approach stand Gershom Scholem and Hugo Odeberg.* Odeberg may well be the first scholar who pointed out that the descriptions of celestial titles for Enoch in 2 Enoch are the most important evidences of possible connections between it and texts of the Merkabah tradition. In these descriptions of celestial titles, one may find the origin of an- other image of Enoch, quite distinct from early Enoch literature, which was later developed in Merkabah mysticism—the image of the angel Metatron, ‘The Prince of Presence’. The Slavonic text provides rudi- mentary descriptions of several traditional Merkabah titles of Metatron- Enoch, (e.g., ‘the Lad’, ‘the Scribe’, ‘the Prince of the World’, ‘the Prince of Presence’).° Keeping these manifestations of Merkabah sym- According to Gruenwald the main subjects dealt with in the Hekhaloth literature are heavenly ascensions and the revelation of cosmological secrets, I. Gruenwald, Apoc- alyptic and Merkavah Mysticism (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1980). The term ‘Merkabah’ (the Chariot) can be used also in its technical Kabbalistic meaning as the link be- tween the physical and the divine worlds or as one of the upper worlds. On the Merkabah and the Hekhaloth traditions, see the following sources: D. Blumenthal, Understanding Jewish Mysticism, a Source Reader: The Merkabah Tradition and the Zoharic Tradition (New York: Ktav, 1978); I. Chernus, Mysticism in Rabbinic Judaism (Berlin: W. de Gruyter, 1982); M. Cohen, The Shi'ur Qomah: Liturgy and Theurgy in Pre-Kabbalistic Jewish Mysticism (Lanham: University Press of Amer- ica, 1983); I. Gruenwald and M. Smith, The Hekhaloth Literature in English (Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1983); D. Halperin, The Faces of Chariot: Early Jew- ish Responses to Ezekiel’s Vision (Tubingen: Moht/Siebeck, 1988); D. Halperin, The Merkavah in Rabbinic Literature (New Haven: American Oriental Society, 1980); M. Idel, ‘Enoch is Metatron’, Immanuel 24-25 (1990), pp. 220-40; L. Jacobs, Jewish Mystical Testimonies (New York: Schocken Books, 1977); N. Janowitz, The Poetics of Ascent: Theories of Language in a Rabbinic Ascent Text (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989); M. Morgan, Sepher ha-Razim: The Book of Mysteries (Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1983); P. Schiifer (ed.), Synopse zur Hek- halot-Literatur (Tibingen: Mohr/Siebeck, 1981); P. Schafer, The Hidden and Man- ifest God (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992); G. Scholem, Jewish Gnosticism, Merkabah Mysticism, and Talmudic Tradition (New York: Jewish The- ological Seminary of America, 1965); G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysti- cism (New York: Schocken Books, 1954); M. Swartz, Mystical Prayer in Ancient Judaism: An Analysis of Ma’aseh Merkavah (Tiibingen: Mohr/Siebeck, 1992). 5. H.Odeberg, 3 Enoch or the Hebrew Book of Enoch (New York: Ktav, 1973); G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (New York: Schocken Books, 1954); idem, Origins of the Kabbalah (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987). 6. See A. Orlov, ‘“Merkabah Stratum” of the Short Recention of 2 Enoch’ (Brown Library, Abilene Christian University, Abilene, 1995).22 Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 21 (2000) bolism in mind, this article will focus upon only one of these titles of Enoch, namely, ‘The Prince, or the Governor, of the World’. The article will also explore some Slavonic terminology related to this title which may yield insight into the origin of the name ‘Metatron’. The Merkabah tradition stresses the role of Metatron as the ‘govern- ing power over the nations, kingdoms and rulers on earth’.’ Sefer Heik- haloth pictures Metatron as the Prince of the World, the leader of 72 princes of the kingdom of the world, who speaks (pleads) in favor of the world before the Holy One. Chapter 43° of the short recension of 2 Enoch and a similar passage of the text of 2 Enoch in the Slavonic col- lection ‘The Just Balance’ ° reveal Enoch in his new celestial role. Both texts outline Enoch’s instructions to his children, during his brief return to the earth, in which he mentions his new role as the Governor or the Guide of the earth: Blessed is he who understands all works of the Lord (and glorifies Him): and, because of His work, knows the Creator. And behold my children, I am the Governor'® of the earth, prometaya, I wrote (them) down. And the whole year I combined and the hours of the day. And the hours I mea- sured: and I wrote down every seed on earth. And I compared every mea- sure and the just balance I measured.'! An important aspect of both passages is the Slavonic term prometaya, which follows Enoch’s title, “The Governor of the World’.!? This term was deliberately left in its original Slavonic form in order to preserve its authentic phonetic image. Prometaya represents an etymological enigma for experts in Slavonic, since it is found solely in the text of 2 Enoch. It 7. Odeberg, 3 Enoch, p. 81. 8. Here and later I have used Andersen's English translation and follow his division in chapters (Andersen, ‘2 Enoch’, pp. 102-221. 9. ‘The Just Balance’ (Merilo Pravednoe) is the Slavonic collection of ethical writings in which the existence of 2 Enoch was made public. See M.N. Tichomiroy, Merilo Pravednoe po rukopisi XIV veka (Moscow: AN SSSR, 1961). 10. Andersen translates the title as ‘manager’—"I am the manager of the arrange- ments on earth’ (Andersen, ‘2 Enoch’, p. 217). Sreznevsky in his dictionary relates Aurmicistive to the Greek word zuBépvnats or the Latin—gubernatio. (1. Sreznevsky, Slovar’ dreynerusskogo yazyka (Moscow: Kniga, 1989), I[I1}, p. 1410). Cf. Ch fried Béttrich, Das Slavische Henochbuch (Gitersloh: Gutersloher Verlaghaus, 1995), p. 958. 11. Andersen, ‘2 Enoch’, pp. 217-19. 12. Andersen translates the title as ‘The manager of the arrangements on earth’. Andersen, ‘2 Enoch’, p. 217.ORLOV The Origin of the Name ‘Metranon’ 23 should be stressed again that there is no other Slavonic text where the word prometaya is documented. Prominent Russian linguist I. Sreznevsky, in his Slavonic dictionary, which is still considered by experts as a most reliable tool of Slavonic etymology, was unable to provide a definition for prometaya.'3 He sim- ply added a question mark with the meaning for the word.'* The variety of readings for this term in the manuscripts of 2 Enoch'> shows similar ‘linguistic embarrassment’ among Slavic scribes who most likely had some difficulties discerning the meaning of this ambiguous term. The readings of other manuscripts include promitaya, prometaemaa, pome- taya, pametaa. One possible explanation for the singular occurance of prometaya is that the word may actually be a Greek term that was left untranslated in the original text for some unknown reason. In fact, 2 Enoch contains a number of transliterated Hebrew and Greek words preserved in their original phonetic form (e.g., Grigori, Ophanim, Ragia Araboth). When I started to investigate the term prometaya more closely, what drew my attention was the root meta, which necessitated further examination of the relationship between the words prometaya and metatron. Contemporary scholarship does not furnish a consensus concerning the origin of the name ‘Metatron’. In scholarly literature, there are sev- eral independent hypotheses about the provenance of the term. I want to draw our attention to one possible interpretation, which could be con- nected with some materials in 2 Enoch. According to this interpretation, the name ‘Metatron’ may be derived from the Greek word étpov (mea- sure, rule). Adolf Jellinek may well be the first scholar who suggested 4étpov as an alternative explanation of Metatron, on the assumption that Metatron was identical with Horos.'® Gedaliahu Stroumsa in his article, ‘Forms of God: Some Notes on Metatron and Christ’, gives some con- 13. On the other hand, Vaillant in his edition states that prometaya could be identified as arare verb corresponding to the Greek BuoaviGev. The linguistic source of this suggestion remains unknown. Andersen criticizes this translation, pointing out that the meaning is not quite suitable and does not correspond to earlier mate- rials. See Andersen, ‘2 Enoch’, p. 217. 14. promitati, promitaya—? |. Srezneysky, Slovar’ drevnerusskogo yazyka (Mos- cow: Kniga,1989), II(II), p. 1544. 15. Andersen stresses that the variations show ‘theological embarassment’ among the Slavic scribes (“2 Enoch’, p. 217). 16. Odeberg, 3 Enoch, p. 134.24 Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 21 (2000) vincing new reasons for the acceptance of this etymology, on the basis that Metatron not only carried God’s name, but also measured Him; he was His shiur gomah (the measurement of the Divine Body). In light of this observation, Stroumsa stresses that ‘renewed attention should be given to uétpov and/or metator as a possible etymology of Metatron’."* Matthew Black, in a short article dedicated to the origin of the name Metatron, expounds upon an additional etymological facet of this inter- pretation of the name. He traces the origin of the name to a previously unnoticed piece of evidence which can be found in Philo’s'® Quaest. in Gen., where, among other titles of the Logos, Black finds the term prae- metitor.° He further suggests that praemetitor could be traced to the Greek term petpytms,”! the Greek equivalent of the Latin metator, ‘mea- surer’, applied to the Logos.” The term praemetitor in its hypothetical meaning as a ‘measurer’ is an important piece of evidence because it is almost phonetically identical with the Slavonic term prometaya. Additionally, the term prometaya is incorporated into the passage which describes Enoch as the Measurer of the Lord. In ch. 43 of 2 Enoch, immediately after the use of this term, Enoch makes the fol- lowing statement: T have arranged the whole year. And from the year I calculated the months, and from the months I calculated the days, and from the day I calculated the hours. | have measured” and noted the hours. And I have distinguished every seed on the earth, and every measure” and every righteous scale. have measured” and recorded them.” 17. G.G. Stroumsa, ‘Form(s) of God: Some Notes on Metatron and Christ’, HTR 76 (1983), p. 287. 18. Stroumsa, ‘Form(s) of God’, p. 287. 19, The idea that the Metatron figure originally came into Judaism from Philo’s Logos speculations was a popular thought in German scholarship of the last cen- tury. Cf. M. Friedliinder, Der vorchristliche Jiidische Gnostizismus (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck, 1898); M. Griinbaum, Gesammelte Aufséitze zur Sprach-und Sagen- kunde (Berlin: $. Calvary, 1901); M. Sachs, Beitréige zur Sprach-und Alterthums- {forschung (Berlin, 1852); N. Weinstein, Zur Genesis der Agada (Gottingen: Van- denhoeck & Ruprecht, 1901) 20. M. Black, ‘The Origin of the Name Metatron’, VT 1 (1951), p. 218. 21. Black, “The Origen of the Name Metatron’, p. 218. 22. Black, ‘The Origen of the Name Metatron’, p. 218. 23. lemerikh.. Vaillant, Le livre des secrets d'Hénoch, p. 46. 24. Meru . Vaillant, Le livre des secrets d'Hénoch, p. 46.ORLOV The Origin of the Name ‘Metranon’ 25 A similar passage in the previously mentioned collection, “The Just Bal- ance’ also emphasizes the functions of Enoch as the measurer: And the whole year I combined, and the hours of the day. And the hours I measured: and | wrote down every seed on earth. And I compared every measure and the just balance I measured. And I wrote (them) down, just as the Lord commanded. And in everything I discovered differences.”” These two passages echo the passage from Philo’s Quaest. in Gen. which discusses the Divine Logos as the ‘just measure’: And ‘Gomorra’, ‘measure’ true and just?* is the Divine Logos, by which have been measured and are measured all things that are on earth—prin- ciples, numbers and proportions in harmony and consonance being in- cluded, through which the form and measures of existing things are seen? The text of 2 Enoch uses the identical term ‘just measure’ (mera praved- na), immediately after the passage dedicated to the function of Enoch as measurer. In addition to Stroumsa’s suggestion about possible connections be- tween ‘the measurer’ and ‘the measurement of divine body’, it is note- worthy that there is another hypothetical link between the functions of Enoch-Metatron as ‘the measurer’ and his ‘measurements’ of human sin for final judgment in the text of 2 Enoch. Following Enoch’s introduc- tion as ‘the measurer’, the text mentions the ‘measurement’ of each per- son for final judgment: ...in the great judgment day every measure and weight in the market will be exposed, and each one will recognize his own measure, and in it he will receive his reward... Before humankind existed, a place of judg- ment, ahead of time, was prepared for them, and scales and weights by means of which a person will be tested.*? A second possible interpretation of the term prometaya can be traced to Enoch’s title, “Governor of the World’, after which the Slavonic term prometaya occurs. It can be assumed that prometaya in this situation is a Greek word, which somehow is connected with this title. Possible 25. Iemerikh, Vaillant, Le livre des secrets d'Hénoch, p. 46. 26. Andersen, ‘2 Enoch’, p. 171. 27. Andersen, ‘2 Enoch’, p. 217. 28. See Vaillant, Le livre des secrets d’Hénoch, p. 46. 29. Philo, Quaest. in Gen. 30, Andersen, ‘2 Enoch’, p. 219.26 Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 21 (2000) hypothetical Greek prototypes of prometaya could be mpounGera (mpoy- nOevs, tpounSéouat), in the sense of protection, care, or providence, which could be directly related to the preceding title of Enoch, Gov- ernor, Guide of the earth—‘I am the Governor of the earth, prometaya, Thave written them down’. In conclusion, it is important to note that prometaya could represent a very early, rudimentary form of the title that later was transformed into the term ‘metatron’. In relation to this, Gershom Scholem, in his anal- ysis of the term ‘metatron’, shows that the reduplication of the letter ret (tt) and the ending ron represent a typical pattern that runs through all Merkabah texts. In his opinion, ‘both the ending and the repetition of the consonant are observable, for instance, in names like Zoharariel and Adiriron’.*' Further, he stresses that it must also be borne in mind that onand ron may have been fixed and typical constituents of secret names rather than meaningful syllables.*? Thus, keeping in mind the possible date of 2 Enoch in the first cen- tury of the common era® before the destruction of the Second Temple, prometaya could be one of the earliest traces connecting the names. Enoch and Metatron. 31. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism , p. 69. 32. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, pp. 69-70. 33. On the hypothetical date of 2 Enoch see: Scholem, Jewish Gnosticism, Merkabah Mysticism and Talmudic Tradition (New York: The Jewish Theological Seminary, 1965), p. 17; Gruenwald, Apocalyptic and Merkavah Mysticism, p. 50